The Vault
by Hestert
Summary: At the latest crime scene our CSIs find a little boy and a woman, but when they take them, they attract the disastrous attention of the woman's owner.
1. Surprise

Nick looked up at the huge warehouse that stood in front of him. Grissom pulled up his left eyebrow.

"Mmm … Cosy."

Sara smiled and pressed the bar of the big wood door down. The door opened with a squeaking sound. The warehouse was nearly empty and very big. In the centre stood a gigantic square vault. It was 13 by 13 by 13 feet. The steel was rusty and the grey paint was almost entirely worn off.

From under the door dripped blood on the concrete floor. A big pool was slowly forming on the ground. Grissom coughed.

"Very cosy, indeed."

Nick tried the 30" wheel on the outside. Locked…

"Great…" Sara decided to have a brilliant idea.

"Maybe you should try 0000?" Sara suggested, pointing at the number pad above the wheel.

"Yeah right."

With a smug smile he punched in the code and turned the wheel again without even thinking for a second that it might actually work. The door opened smoothly. Dumbfounded, Nick and Grissom looked on.

"I told you so."

Sara grinned with self confidence, while throwing the door wide open. A sickening smell of blood came through it. The body of a young, Asian woman lay on the floor, bleeding out from the coronal artery. The vault was near empty, besides a few blankets and crates almost in the back. Grissom entered the scene in good confidence and stared at the dead woman.

Suddenly they heard a sound coming from behind the crates. Grissom stood in shock as another young woman jumped in sight and attacked him like a wild animal.

A shot was fired. Surprised Nick checked his gun, because he was sure he hadn't fired a round.

The wild-eyed woman fell to the ground and grabbed her leg. Grissom seemed to wake up and turned around. Sara was looking victoriously.

"Goal!"

"Call an ambulance," Grissom said, still looking rather disturbed.

The woman on the floor was moaning softly. Nick took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialled 911. Grissom bend over the wounded woman and took a good look at her. She was wearing a blue summer dress that was smeared with blood and as far as he could tell she wasn't wearing anything else. In her hand she held a big knife, also covered in blood. Nick grinned:

"Murderer locked herself in vault, including vic and murder weapon. This must be as easy as it gets!"

"Is she alright?" Sara questioned Grissom, a little concerned after all.

"Yes, it's not as bad as it looks."

A deep silence followed, in which Sara was watching Grissom, who in turn was staring intently at the blankets in the back of the safe.

"What is it?" Sara asked.

"Something was moving over there…"

Sara took her gun again and walked further into the vault. She carefully gripped the tip of the blanket and mentally counted to three.

She forcefully pulled it up. Slightly shaking, she aimed her gun at the hidden creature.

A small boy with big blue eyes looked up at her in fear. His blond curls stuck to his forehead. His lip quivered:

"Mommy?"

* * *


	2. Investigation

The boy flew across the interrogation room in panic and moved a chair in to the corner. He dove under it and started crying. Sara walked carefully into the room.

"Hej," she said, friendly smiling. "Calm down, kiddo."

The boy calmed down a bit and look up at her in fear. His blue eyes were watery:

"Mommy, please..."

Sara haunched in front of the chair. The boy pushed himself even further into the corner. It hurt Sara to see a child this scared. For a second she recognized herself in his pained look. Old scars send warning signs through her body. She ignored them and look at the boy intensely.

"Mommy is sick. She needed to go to the doctor for a while. She'll be back tomorrow, alright?"

"Go away, mommy! MOMMY!"

Sara smiled patiently:

"My name is Sara, what's your name?"

With big angry eyes the boy gazed back at her.

"Go away, stay away from mommy!"

"Mommy will be back tomorrow."

"Mommy, please..."

From behind the window Warrick observed the kid. He read the file and stared at the boy, who was now reasonably relaxed, but still sat in the corner. Not a single useful word out of him. Greg came strawling in.

"Hej, what's this?"

"DB found, young female, in a vault in a warehouse. Next to the body in the same vault was this boy and another young woman, most likely his mother. The latter had a bloody knife in her hand."

"Obvious," Greg smiled. "Piece of cake. Where is the mother, AKA murderer?"

"In the hospital, Sara shot her."

Greg whisled. Warrick barely reacted. He stared through the glass at the boy who was now murmeling strange words. The only thing the kid was wearing was an oversized white T-shirt which he had pulled over his knees. Sara tried to reach the boy with al her might, but to no avail. With a tight stare the boy watched his fingers and didn't look up again.

"You'd think there'd be loads of evidence in a vault with three persons in it, wouldn't you?" Nick commented after he and Grissom had combed through the entire thing twice.

"Never assume anything, Nicky, only trust the evidence." He replied curtly. He too was a bit pissed of at the obvious lack of hairs, fibers or any other sort of trace they could investigate.

"Did you search the handle?" Nick drew up an eyebrow.

"We found three hairs, six partial fingerprints and a pool of blood inside, and you expect to find anything on the outside?" He look every bit as sceptical as he had at Sara's suggestion five hours ago.

"You've hung to much around Sara. Or is it the other way around?" He wasn't sure.

"Very funny, Nick," Grissom replied, not looking amused. "Just do it, pretty please."

Nick walked outside the vault and closed the door halfway, so that he could powder it.

"Ooh... Big shock, no prints. Can we go now?" Grissom laughed out loud when he look at him.

"Nicky, my boy, you look like a baby when you start pouting like that!" Grissom him still grinning. "Make sure to check the rest of the outside too."

Nick let out a tortured moan and set to work on the leftside of the vault. After covering about a square yard and finding a good 25 prints he got a bad feeling.

"Griss, could you take a look at this?" he said.

Grissom came outside looking as though he had been disturbed in the middle of something utterly important.Until he saw the fingerprints scattered over the outside of the vault.

Apparantly awestruck he said drily:

"That's a lot of prints!"


	3. Idea

Catherine knocked on the hospital rooms door. No answer. She entered the room softly. The mysterious woman lay on the bed and stared completely expressionless at the ceiling. Catherine grabbed a chair and sat next to the bed. She turned the device in her pocket on with an audible click. Their conversation would be recorded.

"How are you?"

"Fine." The voice of the you woman sounded eerie and undoubtedly bad. She had a Dutch accent. She also looked like she was about to throw up.

"How's the leg?"

"Great, the bullet hit nothing vital. I can go home…"

A awkward silence ensued. The girl in the bed grinned darkly:

"Well, 'home'…"

"You'll be picked up later. We're gonna have to take you into custody for now."

"Where is Charlie?" The young woman sat up straight all of the sudden and looked at Catherine with big eyes.

"Where is Charlie, please…" She gripped Catherine's hand.

"Charlie is safe with my colleges."

The girl lowered herself again and breathed heavily.

"I have to see him."

"You can do that later, first I have to ask you some questions and-"

"I committed the murder, Charlie had nothing to do with it." the girl interrupted Catherine.

"Alright… What's your name?"

"I'm homeless and I just happened to walk into that warehouse with my friend. I don't know her real name but we used to call her Flee. We saw the vault and once we were inside the door fell shut. We panicked and started a fight. Then I stabbed her with the knive. I also have it to protect myself. You know the rest."

The girl looked at Catherine tersely. Her lips were thin. The story sounded memorised. Catherine sighed.

"What's your name?"

A vague glimmer came over the girls eyes.

"He used to call me Darla…"

"Who is he?"

Darla's eyes became fierce.

"Stop!"

Warric, Grissom and Nick sat around the table and were having a discussion.

"Where is Sara?" Nick asked.

"Still with the boy." Grissom responded.

"She still hasn't managed to gain his trust and when I tried it just got worse," Nick sighed. "He just kept screaming."

Grissom nodded. "Same story here."

"We can't start to imagine what the kid must have gone through," Warrick threw in. He stared ahead contemplatively. "We can't investigate him either this way."

"I'm worried". Grissom's concern seemed genuine. "He hasn't drunk anything, eaten anything and he didn't get any eye-shut last night."

"Warrick's eyes lit up.

"Wait, I've got an idea, give me half an hour."

He stood up and ran out of the room.

Nick and Grissom stared after him.

"Woooow… that must be a brilliant idea," Nick smiled.

Greg burst into the room.

"Alright, this is incredible. I want a promotion."

Grissom smiled: "Sure, Greggo…"

"Those fingerprints, you know, the ones you lifted of the outside of the vault?"

"Get to the point, Greg," Nick said impatiently.

"They all belong to missing females, between 1993 and 2006. The girls were all taken at the age of 15." Greg looked proud.

Grissom stood half up, while Nick was still gaping at Greg.

"What?!"


End file.
